The latest
Scott County’s first COVID-19 case
To the degree that small, rural Scott County was known for anything to the rest of the state, it was for being the only Illinois county without a single case of COVID-19.
A few weeks ago, one guy even made the trip down from the Chicago area just to visit the last corner of Illinois that had been spared.
“He went and got his hair cut at the barbershop and walked around town,” said Steve Granger, who owns the bowling alley in the town of Winchester.
Scott County lost that distinction last week, when a 66-year-old woman was diagnosed with the virus and was reported to be recovering at her home.
But even with the news, little has changed in the central Illinois county of 4,951.
“Well everybody was disappointed because we kind of liked being the only county that didn’t have a case, a confirmed case,” said Rex McIntire, mayor of Winchester, the 1,458-population county seat. “But we kind of also knew it was just a matter of time, so no shock or anything.”
In fact, if anything has changed, it’s in the direction of reopening, along with the rest of the state.
Read reporter Neal Earley’s first report from Scott County here.
News
8:04 a.m. Suburban movie theaters to temporarily close again after 3 weeks of social distancing
Suburban movie theaters in the Classic Cinemas chain, which reopened 11 days ago, will close again temporarily after the end of business on Thursday.
“Unfortunately, the lack of new movies and the extra costs have made our current business model unsustainable,” the company said in a statement Tuesday.
Classic Cinemas operates the York Theatre in Elmhurst, the Luxury 6 in North Riverside, the Charlestowne 18 in St. Charles, the Cinema 12 in Carpentersville, the Cinema 7 in Sandwich, the Elk Grove in Elk Grove Village, the Fox Lake in Fox Lake, the Paramount Theatre in Kankakee and the Woodstock in Woodstock, as well as locations in Beloit, Wisconsin, and Freeport.
Read the full story here by Darel Jevens.
6:40 a.m. Another PPE shortage? Protective gear for medical workers begins to run low again
The personal protective gear that was in dangerously short supply during the early weeks of the coronavirus crisis in the U.S. is running low again as the virus resumes its rapid spread and the number of hospitalized patients climbs.
A national nursing union is concerned that gear has to be reused. A doctors association warns that physicians’ offices are closed because they cannot get masks and other supplies. And Democratic members of Congress are pushing the Trump administration to devise a national strategy to acquire and distribute gear in anticipation of the crisis worsening into the fall.
“We’re five months into this and there are still shortages of gowns, hair covers, shoe covers, masks, N95 masks,” said Deborah Burger, president of National Nurses United, who cited results from a survey of the union’s members. “They’re being doled out, and we’re still being told to reuse them.”
When the crisis first exploded in March and April in hot spots such as New York City, the situation was so desperate that nurses turned plastic garbage bags into protective gowns. The lack of equipment forced states and hospitals to compete against each other, the federal government and other countries in desperate, expensive bidding wars.
In general, supplies of protective gear are more robust now, and many states and major hospital chains say they are in better shape. But medical professionals and some lawmakers have cast doubt on those improvements as shortages begin to reappear.
New cases
Analysis & Commentary
8:24 a.m. Trump runs foreign students out of the country in a desperate move to return to ‘normal’
We have one question about a Trump administration plan to force thousands of foreign college students to leave the country should their school go online because of COVID-19:
Why?
Why now, when dozens of states are seeing skyrocketing new cases of COVID-19 and colleges are struggling with how best to serve their students during this resurgent pandemic?
Why the rush? Why no advance warning? Why create even bigger problems for more than a million international students who already are struggling to carry on with their education in the United States in this time of global crisis?
Why is the Trump administration so eager to turn back smart and talented young people from around the world whose presence here only makes our campuses of higher learning, college towns and big cities more cosmopolitan, vibrant and diverse?
It’s not as if international students have been a burden. They pump an estimated $41 billion into the U.S. economy each year and support 458,290 jobs, according to NAFSA: Association of International Educators. In Illinois, 53,724 foreign students boost the economy by some $1.9 billion and support 25,855 jobs.
